Events

Mar. 8, 1997

Nittany Lions Top Fighting Irish

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Penn State (4-5) kicked off its Spring Break trip by scoring five unearned runs in the opening frame to defeat Notre Dame (4-4) by a score of 6-2. Tonight's game, played in front of 283 fans, took place at Wolff Municipal Field in San Antonio, Texas.

The Nittany Lions loaded the bases in the top the first when the first three batters all reached base due to Notre Dame errors. First baseman Carl Albrecht then followed with a two-run single off of Brad Lidge (1-1) to start the scoring. The senior tri-captain extended his hitting streak to 11 games (dating to 5/17/96). After a hit-batsman, a strikeout and another run-scoring error, shortstop Adam Beers was hit by a pitch driving in the fourth run of the inning. Joel Torcolini, the ninth to come to the plate, finished the scoring with a sacrifice fly.

Penn State put the game out of reach in the fifth. Right fielder Jeremy Deitrick extending his hitting streak to nine games with a one-out single and Scott Borula, who was 3-for-5 on the day with 2 RBI, followed with a single to left. Both runners scored when Lidge uncorked three wild pitches.

Nittany Lion starter Nate Bump evened his record at 2-2 with an outstanding performance. The junior scattered 10 hits over eight innings, while striking out 10 and giving up only two earned runs.

Notes:

Notre Dame and Penn State will meet again at Wolff Stadium on
Wed., Mar. 12

Freshman 3B Brent Ust went 3-for-4, raising his season batting
aveage to .448 (tied with Jeff Wagner for second on the team).

Mike Amrhein's 2-for-4 day kept his season batting average at
.500.

Penn State turned three double plays and threw out Justin School
trying to stretch a single into a double.

Notre Dame's scoreless first five innings respresented its longest
scoring drought of the season.

Lidge's tough outing included five errors by the Irish infield and
three wild pitches.

The game featured the first Divsion I appearances for frehman Matt
Nussbaum and Larry Zimouf and junior Dan Leatherman (all batted in the
9th), with Leatherman smacking a single to left field.